


The Obvious Choice

by Wallwalker



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: A Total Romantic Cliche, Bisexual Male Character, Feelings Realization, Injury, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:07:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22855978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wallwalker/pseuds/Wallwalker
Summary: After a scam gone wrong, the Captain takes a bigger hit than usual and Corso ends up letting a few things slip. Post Smuggler storyline.
Relationships: Corso Riggs/Male Smuggler
Comments: 1
Kudos: 27
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	The Obvious Choice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [butterpanic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/butterpanic/gifts).



> A treat for a request found when browsing the request signups, because I couldn't believe no one has written about Corso/M!Smuggler and I was happy to see a request for it. Hope you like.

As much as Jrarj liked the difficult jobs, this was a bit too much. 

Jrarj was pressed up close to Corso in the corner of one of the cargo bays, listening for droids. Not that there was any difficulty in finding a droid or two. The pirate they'd been trying to scam was apparently crawling with them.

"Okay, we should've listened to Risha on this one," Corso muttered. 

"You're saying that? Now we know things are bad." Jrarj couldn't help but grin.

"Yeah, yeah. We just need to hold out til the rest of the crew gets through. I hope." 

"They'll get through. If Risha can't slice it then Bowdaar will tear the doors off this ship." He started warming up his stealth generator. "You ready for this?" 

"Yes sir," Corso said, warming up his own blaster. 

Jrarj activated his stealth generator and started to sneak out of the alcove while Corso bursts out, tossing a couple of grenades to scramble some of the droids and firing at others. They knew this routine - Corso would get their attention and Jrarj would take 'em apart. If they were lucky maybe they could actually get control of the ship before the others could get there. Corso was heavier and better at taking a few hits, and Jrarj was, well, the best at not being seen. 

For a bit, Jrarj dared to think that this wasn't as bad as it looked, considering that Corso's shots were taking out the droids very effectively. He reappeared behind one of the sturdier droids and it dropped to the ground, slightly scattergunned. Took a second to pull his light blaster but he managed it, zapping the other two droids nearest him. "And that's why you don't ignore the little guy!" he joked as he looked to Corso. "You okay over-"

Something hard hit him in the back of the head, and he couldn't really help but drop like a rock. 

"Captain!" He heard Corso screaming, from somewhere far away - hadn't he been right there? Where'd he gone off to? Even the distinct buzz of Torchy firing up seemed way too quiet - either his ears were messed up or he'd fallen a long way, or something, and then it all went black and it was easier to just stop thinking. 

\---

Something was buzzing overhead. It wasn't that loud, but it was all Jrarj could hear at the moment and it was driving him completely insane, especially because he realized that nothing was happening when he was trying to open his eyes. 

"...don't think there's much more we can do, Corso," he hears someone saying. Woman's voice, not very familiar. "He took a nasty hit on the head. We've got it under control, at least." 

"Yeah," he hears Corso say. A bit louder, at least. "Yeah, thanks. I... I owe you one." 

"It's my job," the voice says. Mantellian accent, he's pretty sure? Only reason he knows is because he's been around Corso so long; he's not great at that sort of thing unless they make it super obvious. Maybe an old friend. They hadn't been that far from Ord Mantell. 

Maybe he was thinking too hard about this, he thought. Maybe he ought to be worrying more about opening his kriffing eyes. He could hear a chair moving beside him, then someone sitting down heavily. Corso, he thought. Wanted to make a joke about maybe not drinking so many ales, because Corso made that joke with him all the time and turnabout's fair play, but he couldn't move at all. 

"Hi, Captain," he hears him say. "That was... a bit of a scuffle, huh? Guess that I should tell you I'm okay since you asked... wish I knew you were the same."

To be completely honest, he wasn't okay; his head was throbbing and he couldn't get that buzzing out of his head. Still, he was alive. Considering the situation they were in, he would take it. 

"I'm guessing you can figure what happened. You got the droids, pirate snuck up on us, hit you in the head. I managed to distract 'em so they wouldn't finish you off. They held off. I... I got us down planetside after we got everything under control. The rest of the crew is handling it. Told 'em I wanted to stay with you while we got you patched up." 

He heard the man stand up. The chair scraped to the side. 

"Didn't know if you'd want me to stick around, but... I wasn't gonna leave, you know? I love you, Captain." He paused for a bit. "I mean, I... like I said, I wanna help out whenever you settle down, um, help with the.. the kids..." Then he sighs from somewhere and Jrarj is pretty sure he heard him punch a wall. Hopefully his buddy back there wouldn't hear that. "You know what? I don't care if you hear me because I'd have to say it sometime, and I don't particularly want to say it twice. It's hard enough once. Yeah, I... I have no idea when it happened, but it did. I never thought I cared for men that way but that was before I met you. If I got the chance again, and I could work up the nerve, I'd kiss you. I don't think I'd even care who's watching. I love you, okay?" 

If Jrarj had been talking then that would've knocked the words right out of him. How the kriff had he missed this? It wasn't like he had never been with guys before. He'd had a few catch his eye, mostly the clean-cut ones - the dinner with that noble lady on Alderaan had been nice, and she was cute enough, but he really hadn't had the words to say that he'd rather be having the after-dinner drinks with her brother. 

Corso was cute enough, sure, had the whole innocent-farm-boy thing going for him and had some impressive muscles, made Jrarj look really scrawny in comparison. Jrarj usually just blamed the high Zabrak metabolism for it. But the point was that Corso was anything but clean cut and they didn't have that much in common; he was a country boy from the middle of nowhere and Jrarj was a city-planet slicker who'd gotten up and left after getting bored. And he and Corso already argued - about Corso's moralizing, about passing up certain jobs Jrarj thought would be too much trouble or taking others that Corso thought were beneath them, about what Corso called shoddy weapon maintenance (and he didn't know why Corso gave him such a hard time - the weapons still worked, didn't they?) If they made a pair of it, they'd probably find a whole galaxy worth of things to bicker about. Part of why he didn't usually stick around after the first few nights. But even when they bickered... they always had each other's backs, right? Corso was probably why he was still alive, and not just this time either.

He would've sighed, because honestly, he'd wasn't seeing that many good reasons to _not_ give it a shot. Much as he liked keeping his options open, well, this one felt like the obvious choice, and he usually hated the obvious choice. It was just too... well... _obvious._ He hadn't gotten where he was by doing what people expected him to do. 

He could try to use the old justification that if he didn't take the obvious choice most of the time then taking it once in a while was still a surprise, but at the moment that argument felt like a cop-out. Maybe it was just the headache. 

"Welp. Guess that's all I gotta say for now. Guess we'll find out if you heard me whenever you wake up." He sits back down. He can tell he's out of his armor, at least. That always took a while so he must've been under for some time. "I'll just... stick around 'til you do, okay? Hope you don't mind." 

Nah, he thought, he was good. Maybe he shouldn't try to wake up - maybe he just needed more sleep. He'd heard of this sometimes, being kinda awake but not actually being able to move anything, and usually it just took some waiting. Much as Jrarj usually hated waiting, he guessed he didn't have that much choice, so he mentally settled down and tried to get some rest. Took a while with the headache, but after a while it didn't feel like he had to try so hard to relax, which usually meant it was working. 

\---

Well, his eyes still worked. That was the good news.

Jrarj opened them to blinding yellow light. The buzzing noise was apparently coming from that light, and he cursed under his breath without thinking. "That light's too kriffing _loud,_ " to be exact. 

"Huh?" Corso was still there, apparently. Not that he was surprised; Corso kept his word unless something really significant got in the way. "I don't hear anything. What're you talking about, Captain?" 

Jrarj pointed upwards, at the giant yellow light, and then noticed that shadows were moving over it. Something crackled and went silent. "There," Corso said. "Light's out." 

"Mm. Thanks." Jrarj was more relaxed already. "Hope you didn't break it. Your lady friend might get upset." 

"Nah, just found the switch." He smiled. "Boy, am I glad to hear your voice, Captain. Shani back there didn't know if you'd wake up after that hit."

"I thought she said it was under control," he said without thinking, lying back and lifting up his hands. He could see where there'd been a needle a couple times. Probably some stims and kolto injections. Ord Mantell wasn't the most advanced planet unless you were in a Republic army base. 

"She said that after. Think it was just to calm me down." He's smiling. "I must've looked a real mess. One of the pirates had a stealth generator too. He snuck up behind you and got you in the back of the head, I'm surprised it didn't cave in your skull, big as he was. Fortunately I managed to get Torchy out in time to blast 'em. Thought that he and his droid buddies were gonna tear me apart but then the rest of the crew showed up. You were right before, by the way, Akaavi is _not_ somebody I ever want mad at me." 

He snorts. "Of course she's not. She's Mandalorian, remember?" But the mild scorn doesn't last long and soon he's smiling. "Glad to see you too, Corso," he says, reaching out a hand. "Thanks for dragging me out here."

Corso took it without hesitating. No gloves - he's wearing a set of old farmhand clothes that are too big for 'em. Didn't do him any favors, sadly. "You don't have to mention that, Captain. You knew I'd do it." 

"Yeah, well, thanks for surviving to do it, then." He doesn't let go of his hand. "So. Um. Maybe this isn't the best moment but I just took a hit to the head and I don't wanna forget." 

"Forget what?" Corso blinked. 

"About that other stuff you said." 

"...oh." Apparently he had not realized that hearing his friend talk about his concussion had also possibly meant that he'd heard the rest of it. He'd never seen Corso go that red before. "So... guess I ain't gonna have to say it twice after all, huh."

"Good thing, if you're always going to blush like that," he jokes gently. "So I'm guessing you were serious."

"Well, yeah! Wouldn't lie to you, even if you were asleep." He is laughing nervously now. It's simultaneously cute and hilarious. "So, yeah. I know this ain't somethin' I've ever considered and I don't know if you would consider it. But hey, after all we've been through..."

Jrarj grins back. "I've considered it a few more times than you know, Corso. I didn't tell you because I figured you liked the ladies." 

"I do! Just... guess I never really thought about it. I mean, I've thought about a couple guys but I didn't know that meant..." He was blushing. 

"Hey. It's fine. Relax. We've been through enough already, this should be the easy part. Right?"

"Yeah. Sure, Captain." He takes a deep breath. "You want to... try it, then? I wouldn't know how. Never been with a guy before, so I don't know how it works."

Jrarj had to laugh that time. "It's a lot like being with a lady, except messier. We can work that out later, but right now I've got a headache."

"Hah, okay, Captain." He was still holding his hand. Seemed a bit more relaxed now, except for the blush. "Yeah. Glad we're on the same page. Wouldn't want to make things too awkward."

"You just carried me who-knows-how-long with a head injury to get me patched up. That's awkward. This is fine." He looks up at Corso, noticing the dark circles under his eyes. "When's the last time you slept, anyway?" 

"I dunno, back on the ship?" 

"There's another bed over there. Take a nap. I'd say you could join me, but I don't think this bed's big enough for two."

"No. No it is not." Corso chuckled again. "Guess we should... probably start in a better one. Your bunk, maybe." 

"Yeah. We can do that." 

Jrarj could still hear Corso laughing as he reluctantly pulls his hand away. He let go as Corso walked over to the bed - it was barely big enough for Corso alone. He'd manage - liked to brag he'd slept on rocks before, which is a weird thing to brag about, but whatever. He finally relaxed, closing his eyes. Nothing to do but wait for the lady to come back and see what the damage was, and then... well. Whatever would happen after. He had to admit, he was kinda looking forward to it, no matter how obvious it was.


End file.
